French 311DN - Period Courses: 'The Detective Novel in France'

The French detective novel found its origins in Poe and in the disillusionment and malaise of the increasingly urban universe of the nineteenth century. It generally centered on a dark, mysterious Parisian atmosphere that spoke to a growing public awareness of the worlds of crime and of the police. Realist novelists, in particular Dostoevsky, enriched the genre's conventions, but the detective novel evolved beyond realism as it moved into the twentieth century, combining unsettling social critique with reassuringly flawless reasoning.

Prereq: Two of the following courses: FREN-215, 219, 225, 230, or permission of department chair and course instructor.